Four short links: 18 June 2014

Browser Crypto, Real Time Consistency, Exploring CS, and CS as Social Movement

Javascript Cryptography Considered Harmful — tl;dr: “don’t”. If you don’t trust the network to deliver a password, or, worse, don’t trust the server not to keep user secrets, you can’t trust them to deliver security code. The same attacker who was sniffing passwords or reading diaries before you introduce crypto is simply hijacking crypto code after you do.

Exploring CS — Both courses are designed to teach the fundamental concepts and big ideas of computing along with coding, and to inspire kids about computer science’s creative potential to transform society.

Why Computer Literacy Is Key To Winning the 21st Century (Mother Jones) — [teaching CS to] middle and high schoolers at the UCLA Community School, an experimental new public K-12 school. “I saw this as a new frontier in the social-justice fight,” she says. “I tell my students, ‘I don’t necessarily want to teach you how to get rich. I want to teach you to be a good citizen.'”